Richard Maibaum Papers at the University of Iowa

Richard Maibaum, who wrote many of the James Bond movie screenplays, donated his papers to the University of Iowa. Pete Balestrieri is the curator for Science Fiction and Pop Culture at the University of Iowa Library.

Join Dan and Tom as they have a discussion with Pete on the Richard Maibaum Papers. This collection includes a large selection of Maibaum’s working materials he used to write 13 James Bond movies. Pete shares his insights into many topics on the development of the movies. For instance, he talks about Sean Connery’s thoughts on the role of Pussy Galore in GOLDFINGER and what Richard Maibaum did because of those thoughts.

One fascinating part of the collection is the research folders. These contain articles that Maibaum clipped out on a variety of topics he researched for plot points. For instance, there is an article on blimps which he clipped out 3 years before A VIEW TO A KILL came out.

But, to us, probably the most interesting part of the collection are the treatments that Maibaum wrote. These are the stories before they are turned into screenplays. As a result, you get to see how the story evolves, sometimes dramatically.It is very cool to read a movie’s treatments and see the evolution of the movie’s story.

It’s not just James Bond

Another key point of the disucssion is that the James Bond materials are only part of the collection. Richard Maibaum wrote many other movies and plays. While you are there you can see some of Maibaum’s notes on his other projects including includes OSS, THE GREAT GATSBY, and TANK FORCE.

Pete discusses the collection, how you can see it and other collections they have at the Library such as the papers from Norman Felton who produced “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.“.

This is a wide-ranging, fun discussion. Pete knows his movie and shares his passion for them in this interview.

Find out More

You can find out more about the special collections at the University of Iowa here.

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